AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)
About this course
A complete, text-first preparation course for the SAA-C03 exam. Every concept is written out in full, every section ships with a printable PDF handout, and more than 200 exam-realistic scenario questions check that you can actually apply what you read — not just recognise it.
What you'll learn
- Design secure AWS architectures using IAM, KMS and the shared responsibility model
- Build resilient, highly available workloads across Availability Zones and Regions
- Choose the right compute, storage and database service for a given workload
- Design VPC networking, hybrid connectivity and global content delivery
- Apply the four disaster recovery strategies against real RTO/RPO targets
- Optimise architectures for cost and operational excellence
- Sit the SAA-C03 exam with 200+ scenario questions and a full 65-question timed mock behind you
Stuck on something? Ask
Every lesson has an assistant that can see the lesson you are reading. Ask in your own words and it answers using the same examples and table names in front of you — no switching to a search engine and losing your place.
Why does WHERE come after FROM?
Because the database reads the rows first, then decides which to keep. That order is also why WHERE cannot see a SELECT alias.
It will not give you assessment answers — it explains the idea they test, so the certificate still means something.
Not ready yet?
One email when something new is published. Nothing else.
Course content
Cloud Foundations & the Well-Architected Framework 10 lessons
- How to use this course Preview
- How to read an SAA-C03 question Preview
- AWS global infrastructure: Regions, Availability Zones and edge Preview
- The shared responsibility model
- Knowledge check: global infrastructure & responsibility Preview
- Working with AWS: console, CLI, SDK and infrastructure as code
- AWS pricing models and cost fundamentals
- The Well-Architected Framework
- Section 1 assessment: cloud foundations
- Section 1 handout (PDF) Preview
Identity & Access Management 8 lessons
- IAM building blocks: users, groups, roles and policies Preview
- How a request is authorised: policy evaluation logic
- Roles, STS and temporary credentials
- Knowledge check: IAM principals & policy evaluation
- AWS Organizations and service control policies
- IAM Identity Center, federation and directory services
- Section 2 assessment: identity & access management
- Section 2 handout (PDF)
Data Protection & Application Security 7 lessons
- Encryption at rest: KMS and envelope encryption
- Secrets, certificates and encryption in transit
- Knowledge check: encryption & key management
- Perimeter defence: WAF, Shield and Firewall Manager
- Detection and response: GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie and friends
- Section 3 assessment: data protection & security services
- Section 3 handout (PDF)
Networking & Content Delivery 7 lessons
- VPC anatomy: CIDR, subnets and route tables Preview
- Security groups, NACLs and VPC endpoints
- Knowledge check: VPC fundamentals
- Connecting networks: peering, Transit Gateway, VPN and Direct Connect
- Route 53, CloudFront and Global Accelerator
- Section 4 assessment: networking & content delivery
- Section 4 handout (PDF)
Compute & Application Integration 7 lessons
- EC2: instance families, storage and placement
- Elastic Load Balancing and Auto Scaling
- Knowledge check: EC2, scaling & load balancing
- Serverless compute: Lambda, containers and Fargate
- Decoupling: SQS, SNS, EventBridge and Step Functions
- Section 5 assessment: compute & integration
- Section 5 handout (PDF)
Storage 6 lessons
- Amazon S3: fundamentals, storage classes and lifecycle Preview
- Block and file storage: EBS, EFS and FSx
- Knowledge check: S3 classes & lifecycle
- Hybrid storage, data transfer and backup
- Section 6 assessment: storage
- Section 6 handout (PDF)
Databases & Analytics 6 lessons
- Amazon RDS and Aurora
- DynamoDB and the purpose-built databases
- Knowledge check: relational databases on AWS
- Analytics: Redshift, Athena, Kinesis and Glue
- Section 7 assessment: databases & analytics
- Section 7 handout (PDF)
Resilience, Observability & Cost Optimisation 7 lessons
- Designing for high availability and fault tolerance
- Disaster recovery: the four strategies
- Knowledge check: availability & disaster recovery
- Observability: CloudWatch, CloudTrail and X-Ray
- Cost optimisation in practice, and exam-day strategy
- Section 8 assessment: resilience, observability & cost
- Section 8 handout (PDF)
Final Mock Exam 2 lessons
- Before you sit the mock
- SAA-C03 full mock exam (65 questions, 130 minutes)
Instructor
Fepiq
Cloud certification training written for self-paced learners who prefer reading over watching.
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Full lifetime access · Certificate on completion · AI tutor in every lesson